PC shuts down playing games

[krille696]

I have a pretty dated gaming PC but I mostly play on low/medium graphics so that's fine for me.

Recently my graphics card broke so I decided to update it slightly (from 560 GTX ti to 670 GTX) and now whenever I play games like CSGO my PC shuts down entirely (no warning or message) after only a short period of in-game time. I have looked up this problem and it seems like an overheating issue.

Looking at my temps when playing they seem fine and close to average and not above the max (but that could be misleading since I can't see what they are when the crash happens). I have also tried lowering my Maximum Processing State to 70% and 60% but that didn't help.

I decided to look up the recommended watts for my card and I read some recommendations of 550W so right after my latest crash I opened up my PC to check what my PSU had (it was pretty warm, so was my graphics card btw) and it only had a 450W average with a 500W peak.

So what I'm thinking is, I should get a new PSU (650W or 750W, does it matter?) but I'm curious if a new PSU will help with the overheating or if that requires a separate solution? Also a bit a worried that the rest of my PC might need upgrades too, or that my crashing issue has something to do with the motherboard God forbid.

Any advice on the situation would be much appreciated!

My specs:

Acer Predator G3610

Windows 7 64bit

Intel(R) Core(TM) i-7 3770 CPU @ 3.40 GHz (8CPUs), ~3.4GHz

12288MB RAM (12 gigs?)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670

 

[volkgren]

It would be a good idea to replace that PSU either way. Get a good one that will last.

Corsair TXm, RMx
EVGA G2, G3
SeaSonic FOCUS, FOCUS Plus, PRIME

those are the best recommended ones, and if you're on a smaller budget you can go with

Corsair CX (2017) or CXM

That's probably not going to help any heat issues. Upgrading your case fans or adding one or two if possible (doubt it's possible) would be the only way to do that.

 

[krille696]

@volkgren

This might be a stupid question, but what are the differences in those, and would it matter if I got a 650W one compared to a 750W one considering my graphics card and other specs?

Looking at the inventory on my local retailers and in my price range I'm thinking about one of these (depending if I go for 650 or 750):

Corsair VS650 v2 (half price of all the ones below, is it bad?)

EVGA Supernova G2 650W

Corsair CX750M

Corsair TX750M

Corsair RM650X

Corsair RM750X v2

EVGA Supernova G2 750W.

Yeah I've had problems with my fans in the past but my new graphics card has a few more built in fans so that seems to have helped with it a little, atleast to the point of being functional. Unfortunately I don't think adding a fan or two is possible, and I'm not sure if I can upgrade them or how I would go about that.

Do you think my PSU could be the sole reason for the crashes I'm having? Wouldn't be fun to buy a new one and still not be able to play due to the fans.

Thank you for your reply!

 

[volkgren]

The Corsair VS series is low quality, not good for gaming. They fail quite often when put in gaming systems.

Corsair CX is better, more reliable. A good option if you're on a budget. I see you said CXM though, which is semi-modular compared to the non-modular CX. So the CXM would be more expensive. If you get CX, get CX (2017) grey label; not the older green or orange label CX units.

The rest of them are considered very good quality with the TXM being semi-modular (should be cheaper) and the rest being fully modular. Some of the 750W models such as the 750 G2 and RM750x (V1) would be slightly larger/longer units, so you would want to make sure they fit. I'd probably stick with one I knew was the smaller/compact version since you have that prebuilt case.

650W or 750W would work fine.

Nothing is absolute when working with computer systems. Typically you would try a different PSU if you had an extra one, if you don't your only options are taking it to a shop or buying a PSU to test yourself. Either way, your current PSU is old and wasn't the best quality to begin. Buying a good quality PSU that will last another 10 years would be an investment that you could use in a future system. The best power supplies now have 10 year warranties.

 

[krille696]

@volkgren

I ended up purchasing a Corsair RM750X v2 and it seemed to have solved my crashing problem. I've played for a couple of hours now without any problems and it fit my case nicely.

I think the investment was worth it and with a 10 year warranty I'll definitely be able to use this in future builds.

My core temps are still at 57-63~ when playing games which seems a little high so I might need to change that thermal paste after all.

I appreciate all your advice.

 

[volkgren]

That's awesome. You've made an excellent choice.

If you already have thermal paste that would work fine. But according to tests and reviews, Arctic MX-4 is considered the best thermal paste. So just FYI if you have to purchase some in the future.